Fun with Music
Did you know?
...that Franz Joseph Haydn [hi-den] was born 200 years ago this year, 2009? He is also considered the father of the modern symphony and the string quartet. Beethoven was one of his students.
Another composer whose work we will program this summer is Johann Sebastian Bach. It is said that his personal life was unexceptional, but his music was sublime and some of the greatest music in the classical repertoire. The famous 20th century cellist Pablo Casals discovered Bach's six solo works for cello when he was 13 years old. It took him 12 years to have the courage to finally play one of Bach's suites in public. Up to that time, these Bach suites were considered technical and academic, without any warmth. But Casals disagreed and claimed " They are the very essence of Bach, and Bach is the essence of music."
These two anecdotes come from the fascinating book by Norman Lebrecht, "The Book of Musical Anecdotes." Click here to buy your own copy.
Aquallegro
For MAC users: download Aquallegro donationware, a great music learning tool by Andy van Ness. It teaches music theory with sections for note names in Treble, Alto, Tenor, and Bass clef, key signatures, both flat and sharp, in Treble, Alto, Tenor, and Bass clef, ear training to recognize all intervals from Augmented Prime to Perfect Octave, ear training to recognize Major, Minor, Diminished, Augmented, Maj7, Min7, and MajMin7 chords in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th inversion, and teaches the notes of the piano keyboard. Enjoy!
Aquallegro is a suite of music theory-teaching software developed by Andy Van Ness. Aquallegro is donationware... basically, it's free if you want it to be,
but if you feel the undeniable urge to send Andy money, --please, go do so. He deserves it: you'll find the donation link on the right of his software page.
Aquallegro is copyright (©)2003 by Andy Van Ness.
All Rights Reserved.
Quizzes for kids
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